Several Steelers might face surgery

The Steelers were battered and bruised all year, with the offensive and defensive lines taking a real hit this season. Nose tackle Casey Hampton and defensive end Brett Keisel suffered injuries against the Broncos, spending the majority of the game on the sidelines as spectators. Offensive tackle Max Starks also left the game injured and all three of them have what Coach Mike Tomlin referred to as significant injuries.

“Max Starks had an ACL injury. He is getting that looked at here today to determine whether or not surgery will be required,” said Tomlin. “Same can be said for Casey Hampton. He has an ACL injury. He will be evaluated today to see if he will require surgery. Brett Keisel has a significant groin injury. He’s getting that looked at today to see if he will need surgery.

“Our philosophy as we push into the offseason is to attack these issues and to be aggressive in dealing with them. We want to do them sooner rather than later, if procedures are going to be required.”

Center Maurkice Pouncey, who missed Sunday’s game with an ankle injury, will also be evaluated to see if any kind of procedure is required.

“We are going to see specifically what his situation is and how we can best move forward into 2012, and if that includes surgery obviously we will explore doing that,” said Tomlin. “There are a lot of people of course that are playing with injury and discomfort. Surgery might be an option for those guys. Doug Legursky has been dealing with a shoulder situation. There are a myriad of those things. That is part of the process we are going through.”

Despite all of the injuries the Steelers will not use any of it as an excuse for what happened against the Broncos.

“Injuries are a part of the game,” said Tomlin. “You aren’t going to be so fortunate that you don’t have to deal with them. We dealt with them to the best of our abilities and it is what it is. We feel like we are fully capable of playing winning football with the men that we had out there and obviously we didn’t do the job.”